PlottFest returns to Maggie Valley

Showcasing the Plott hound and local music, PlottFest is set for June 22-23 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. The festival opens at 9 a.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday.

The official state dog of North Carolina, the Plott hound is native to Haywood County. There will be an American Plott Association-sponsored bench show and National Plott Hound Association-sponsored kid’s bench show. Live music will be provided by Balsam Range, Darren Nicholson Band, Eddie Rose & Highway 40, Mark Bumgarner, Mark Winchester Trio, The Primitive Quartet, Ila Knight, Anita & Luis Diaz, Timbre Fox, and Sam Lewis. The Ghost Town Gunfighters will perform. Food and craft vendors will be on-site.

Tickets are $15 for Saturday, $10 for Sunday or $20 for a weekend pass.

A full schedule of events can be found in the Outdoors section of this week’s Smoky Mountain News.

The Naturalist's Corner

This year will mark the 117th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC.) The CBC is the longest-lived and largest citizen-science project in the world.

The count began in 1900. It was the brainchild of Frank Chapman, one of the officers of the fledgling Audubon Society. Chapman created the “bird census” as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “side-hunt,” a contest where groups would shoulder their arms and hit the fields and/or woods — the team that came back with the greatest number of corpses would be declared the winner.